Nathan Chen likely to skate 2019-20 programs at 2022 U.S. Championships

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Nathan Chen likely to skate 2019-20 programs at 2022 U.S. Championships

Three-time world champion Nathan Chen has gone back to the programs that produced his career best scores.

They are the short program to Charles Aznavour’s version of “La Bohème” and the free skate to an Elton John medley that Chen used in the 2019-20 season, which ended prematurely when the onset of the Covid pandemic forced cancellation of the 2020 World Championships in Montreal.

At the 2019 Grand Prix Final, Chen’s short program to the Aznavour earned him a personal best 110.38 points. With the Elton John free skate at that event, Chen scored a world record 224.92 for a world record total of 335.30.

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No Grand Prix Final leaves competitive questions unanswered - and some uncertainty about upcoming competitions

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No Grand Prix Final leaves competitive questions unanswered - and some uncertainty about upcoming competitions

I love figure skating’s Grand Prix Final. It has six elite entries in each senior discipline, based on qualifying from results on the six-event Grand Prix circuit. No competition session lasting more than an hour, unlike the three-plus-hour sessions at the Olympics and World Championships. And over the years, many stunning performances and record scores.

So, like all those who are interested in the sport, I was disappointed by the Covid-related cancellation of the event scheduled to begin Thursday in Osaka, Japan.

It is the second straight year the global pandemic has led to the Grand Prix Final being cancelled. Last season, the entire series was changed to domestic-only events.

This one would have let us see whether Nathan Chen, invincible from the 2018 Olympics until finishing third at Skate America in October, could win a fourth straight GPF title and reestablish himself as the clear favorite for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. And whether the latest Russian female phenom, Kamila Valieva, could continue her record-setting dominance. And whether the evergreen Chinese pair, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, could hold off the top Russians. And whether French ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron would gain a winning edge over their top rivals before Beijing.

Those questions will go unanswered for the time being. And that leaves questions about competitions to come.

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In speed skater Erin Jackson’s stunning success story, here are chapter and verse

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In speed skater Erin Jackson’s stunning success story, here are chapter and verse

There are so many compelling parts of Erin Jackson’s story it is hard to know which to begin with.

Do you start with Jackson being such a good inline skater she was a four-time world medalist named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s female roller athlete of the year three times?

Or her making the 2018 U.S. Olympic team in long track speed skating about five minutes after she shifted from wheels to blades?

(OK, it took her a little longer, but you get the idea.)

Or her being the first Black woman to make a U.S. Olympic team in long track?

Or her doing that despite coming to the 2018 Olympic trials without having met the qualifying time for the ensuing PyeongChang Winter Games.

Or her getting so many college degrees in so many subjects that Jackson jokingly (or not) thinks she should include “school” when asked to list her hobbies?

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Alysa Liu changes coaches, location a month and a half before Olympic figure skating team selected

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Alysa Liu changes coaches, location a month and a half before Olympic figure skating team selected

Two-time senior national champion Alysa Liu, the most successful U.S. women’s figure skater this season, has changed coaches barely two months before the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

The skater’s father, Arthur Liu, confirmed the switch Monday morning in a text to NBCSports.com.

Two days after returning from the NHK Trophy in Tokyo, which ended Nov. 14, Liu left coaches Massimo Scali and Jeremy Abbott in the San Francisco Bay Area and went to Colorado Springs, Colorado, to train with Christy Krall, Drew Meekins and Viktor Pfeifer.

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The Olympic skating season so far: Injuries and Russian women (and more Russian women. And more. . .)

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The Olympic skating season so far: Injuries and Russian women (and more Russian women. And more. . .)

A baker’s dozen of takeaways halfway through the Grand Prix season – and just under three months from the start of the 2022 Winter Olympics:

1. The injury list added two big names in the last week: Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan, the two-time reigning OIympic champion, and reigning world bronze medalist Alexandra Trusova of Russia, who won Skate America, both have withdrawn from this week’s NHK Trophy with foot injuries, meaning neither can qualify for the Grand Prix Final Dec. 9-12 in Osaka, Japan.

Others previously on the “disabled list”: Japan’s Rika Kihira, the 2018 Grand Prix Final winner and reigning national champion, withdrew from both her scheduled Grand Prix events, as did reigning U.S. champion Bradie Tennell.

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